Career Change and Your CV
The Decision to Change Career
Making a career change is a major decision, particularly in the latter stages of your working life when you're experience and knowledge are focused on a particular function or industry sector. It can be notoriously difficult to convince prospective employers that they should take a risk with a career changer when they can choose from more qualified applicants. As a result, many career changers only flirt with the idea and end up returning to their previous careers when the scale of the challenge confronts them.
But others succeed in this change because they follow a straightforward change model:
(1) Understand what you want and why you are making the change
(2) Select the right time to change
(3) Research the roles and industry
(4) Ensure your qualifications match the requirements and obtain training accordingly
(5) Promote yourself effectively through networking, job searches and your CV
The most critical element of the model is to know yourself and your reasons for change. Being unhappy at work is not usually a strong enough justification. Perhaps it is just the company you are currently working for that is making you unhappy or the fact they are giving you tasks that do not play to your strengths. In these cases, a discussion with your line manager or moving to a competitor company might be your best options. So be clear about your motivations and your true needs from a role.
Passion or Prospects
A successful career change is most often achieved through one of two routes: pursuing a genuine passion or pursuing jobs which are plentiful and so offer you the greatest prospects. If you are fortunate to identify a passion, you can usually approach this through volunteering to gain experience, freelancing or returning to education to gain new qualifications in the area, e.g., an MBA. If brave enough, you can even try the self-employment route but this requires careful planning and financial resources.
The other option is to pursue areas where you feel you have transferrable skills and the best chance of obtaining a post. In this scenario, your CV and networking skills become paramount in securing your new role.
Critical Elements of a Career Change CV
Career change CVs have a difficult job to do. They must demonstrate that you have the relevant skills, as opposed to direct experience, to perform a role or to learn the role in a suitable time frame. This strategy may be complemented by offering a prospective employer other capabilities that are relevant for the organisation. This may give you a unique comparative advantage over other applicants who may only know the role and are not as able to make wider contributions to the organisation.
How Platinum will help with your Career Change
We understand the challenges you face and will work with you to help consider your true motivations and areas of genuine passion. We partner with professional career coaches who are available to support you through this process.
In addition, we can work with you to identify potential roles, steer your research of potential target companies to understand their strategy and where your achievements may be relevant, and then produce a CV and Cover Letter that will powerfully market your capabilities, passion and distinctive selling points to prospective employers.
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